This incoming from Mr Neville himself:
Hey Iggy
The Potatonator is in the Sweet Potato bag of vegies mate.
These boards are not always necessary, but O.M.G they taste so good it is freaky. It is almost like you just cannot have steak (Taj, Flexfire, Hellrazor and Hellfire) and vegies with herbs (Dominator, Spitfire, Futura, El Fuego) without some sweet potato, but you'd live. The Spitfire is like a good herb...You just gotta have one to put some flavor in your repertoire. Greens and Iron are essential for your surfing diet.
The Potatonator is a morphed up Sweet Potato making it a board that can be ridden a bit more aggressively than the SP. Crazy board. You should have seen Chuy going mental on his in Mex. Mark Price could have gone back on tour if he could just remember the 70's enough to know how good he was. If you just keep following the boards up through the range the next one is the Spitfire or Dominator, that will again perform at a more aggressive level but the Potatonator is absolutely a perfect board to complement your HPSB for everything 4ft and under.
Nev"

Comment

is the potatonator supposed to be ridden at more volume then the dom? i noticed that they recommend riding appx 2" shorter then dom but that would put me on a 5' 6 which has less volume then my 5'8 dom.. that formula seems to work with someone going from a say 6'4 dom to a 6'2 taternator which has more volume.. what gives? thx

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I would like to know the answer to this question as well.
If this board fits in between the sweet potato and the Dom then I would think that you would ride the board with a volume that fits in between those two.
I ride a 5,6 potato and a 6,0 Dom should I get a 5,8 or the 5,10 potatonator?

Thanks

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I think the wider tail is going to increase the bottom end over the Dominator even at a similar volume. Looking at the specs, it's not going to be a super groveller like the SP and Baked Potato, it's going to probably suit conditions similar to the Dominator, except it'll excel when things are a little mushier whereas I feel the Dominator/Spitfire really excels when there's a nice little pocket to jam it in. That wide tail block is going to allow you to stand right back on the tail the way you can with the SP and that double concave is going to do it's thing. The wide tail is also keeping the rail line straighter through the back half.
Going by what people have been saying about the SP in better waves, I'm sure the PN is going to go nuts when the waves get a bit better too. Get the right fins in there and hold on for dear life!
I haven't surfed the PN of course, so this is purely speculation.

Comment

Well the guideline is 2" shorter than your Dom and 4"-6" longer than your Spud. Do the Dom and SP feel spot on for you? If so then the 510 PN is probably a good bet.
My response was more toward kdropin who mentioned that the 506 PN had slightly less volume than the 508 DM. I think although there volumes are very similar, the volume is in a slightly shorter and wider board with a fuller tail so it'd still perform better in small stuff than a DM of the same volume. Although it's only 2.25" thick rather than the DMs 2.38", which means the overal area of the board must be quite a bit more to keep the volume up.
I don't think the world would end if you bought the PN in the same size as your DM with the intention of getting more volume for smaller conditions though.

My advice is, if you're unsure about sizing, wait until a few guys have gotten on them and given some feedback on their sizings and that should should, but the FW crew would have it pretty sussed with their recommendation.

Comment

Well the guideline is 2" shorter than your Dom and 4"-6" longer than your Spud. Do the Dom and SP feel spot on for you? If so then the 510 PN is probably a good bet.
My response was more toward kdropin who mentioned that the 506 PN had slightly less volume than the 508 DM. I think although there volumes are very similar, the volume is in a slightly shorter and wider board with a fuller tail so it'd still perform better in small stuff than a DM of the same volume. Although it's only 2.25" thick rather than the DMs 2.38", which means the overal area of the board must be quite a bit more to keep the volume up.
I don't think the world would end if you bought the PN in the same size as your DM with the intention of getting more volume for smaller conditions though.

My advice is, if you're unsure about sizing, wait until a few guys have gotten on them and given some feedback on their sizings and that should should, but the FW crew would have it pretty sussed with their recommendation.

i was just curious also with the volumes of the smaller boards i.e. 5'6 is less volume then the 5'8 dom.. but for ex. my brother is looking at the 6'2 taternater who also rides a 6'4 dom.. his taternator would have more volume then the dom.. and would follow the minus two inches from the dom that you ride